Bad Mojo

The story takes place in 1995 in a rundown bar owned by Eddie Battito. Roger, one of Eddie's tenants, has stolen a million dollars worth of loan money from a science corporation he had previously worked for and is planning to leave for Mexico City to start a new life. But after a small argument with Eddie, he remembers a little trinket that he had gotten in his early childhood: a cockroach-patterned locket that belonged to his deceased mother, Angelina. Upon its discovery, the locket transforms Roger's soul into a cockroach, and transports him to a mysterious sewer system connected to every section of the bar. His adventure takes him to the basement (which is also Eddie's bedroom), the bathroom, the kitchen, the bar room, Roger's room and finally his research room. As the roach (Roger) explores a world filled with danger at every turn, including rats, garbage disposals, and his own pet cat, Franz, he is constantly being guided by his mother's spirit, who serves as an oracle.

The game explores the sad past of both Roger and Eddie, revealing that Roger had been abandoned to an abusive nun, was the center of bullying as a young man, and was never taken seriously by his superiors. Eddie has had just as bad a life, having his beloved wife die during childbirth and giving up his son out of grief and his livelihood stumbling. Eddie does not realize that his wife, Angelina, was Roger's mother, nor does Roger know that Angelina was Eddie's wife. During Roger's exploration, he is forced to extinguish the pilot light to a gas stove in the kitchen to save a baby cockroach that, in turn, assists him in jamming the garbage disposal with a spoon. This act eventually causes the whole bar to be filled with gas. Roger must then set off a smoke detector to wake Eddie and then finally reach the locket in his own unconscious body's hand. With both men safely out of the bar when it explodes, Roger and Eddie discover that they are, in fact, father and son, which was exactly as the oracle planned.

There are four possible endings to the storyline. If Eddie makes it out and Roger doesn't (if Eddie is warned of the fire but Roger is left on the floor), Eddie ends up as a homeless drunk. If Roger makes it out and Eddie doesn't, Roger tries to flee the country but is caught, charged with Eddie's murder, and remanded to an asylum for the criminally insane. If neither make it out, the ghost of Angelina narrates, telling of the death of both men, the destruction of the bar for urban renewal and that the ghosts of all three souls haunt the area where their dreams died. If both of them make it out, Eddie recognizes the cockroach locket (that contains a photo of Angelina) and they reconcile as re-united father and son before both reveal the truth about their past. The family is reunited and they travel together to Mexico with the embezzled money, which Eddie uses to buy a new bar while Roger sets up a small lab to study roaches.

The game begins in an underground hub with pipes to all the different rooms, which are sealed except one. By navigating from one room to another, the player unlocks the pipe to that room for easier backtracking. Roger is controlled solely using the directional arrow keys. As a cockroach, he can move small objects like cigarettes and bottle tops or weigh down precariously placed items.

In each room, there are hazards to avoid, lethal barriers to get around and puzzles to solve. The presence of hazards and ways to navigate to certain areas can be determined by observing other cockroaches. The player has four lives. A life is lost when Roger makes contact with anything deadly. When all lives are depleted, the player is sent back to the underground hub and must start the last room reached from the beginning (although the state of objects stays as the player last changed them).

A symbol of a flaming eye can often be found near living creatures, such as other cockroaches. Touching the eye causes the creature to provide hints to progress through visions and verse (voiced by Angelina). Background objects tell more about the characters and their history.

Bad Mojo{{'}}s development was troubled: director Vinny Carrella noted that there was "a pall over the production" and "no happiness, just pain". The original designer Drew Huffman came up with concept of having a small character in the gameplay due to the technical slowdowns on computers at the time.{{cite web |url=http://www.nightdivestudios.com/bad-mojo-interview/ |title=Bad Mojo Interview - Jensen Toperzer |date=May 6, 2014 |author=Jensen Toperzer |work=Night Dive Studios |access-date=May 25, 2019 |df=mdy-all}} To begin with, the game was codenamed the "Booger Project".{{cite web |author=Laura MacDonald |date=October 13, 2004 |title=Adventure Gamers Interview - Alex Louie |url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17754 |access-date=May 25, 2019 |work=Adventure Gamers |df=mdy-all}} Huffman and Vincent Carella were brainstorming the game with Phill Simon taking inspirations from their experience with cockroach infestations, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. The puzzles that were implemented focused on realism and the capabilities of a cockroach.

For graphics, the team used a mixture of CG and live action. It took a lot of study and modelling to get realistic looking roach graphics in the game animating the walk cycles frame by frame. About 720 screens in the game were produced.{{cite web |url=http://www.nightdivestudios.com/bad-mojo-interview/ |title=Bad Mojo Interview - Alex Louie |date=May 6, 2014 |author=Alex Louie |work=Night Dive Studios |access-date=May 25, 2019 |df=mdy-all}} Parts of the cutscenes were created using Swivel 3D.{{cite web |url=https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/The-beat-goes-on-3136315.php |title=The beat goes on |date=February 16, 1997 |author=Tom Abate |work=SFGate}}

Some elements in the game required some specialists. A professional cat wrangler and trainer was hired to move the cat on the set and insurance was also required for the cat. The German cockroaches were provided by the Carolina Biological Supply Company. Controlling the roaches required a freezer to slow down their activity. The rat was caught and killed by an exterminator. The live catfish were bought from a fishmonger in Chinatown, San Francisco. During the production, a few animals were harmed, including a tarantula.

The game features a substantial electronic music soundtrack composed and performed by the American electro-industrial artist Xorcist, which has also written soundtracks for other CD-ROM games, notably Iron Helix.

By early 1996, a demo was released featuring a trailer, text plot and a short gameplay with only five screens of the basement.

The game was planned for the Sega Saturn.{{cite magazine |date=May 1996 |title=News - Alien Empire |url=https://retrocdn.net/images/c/cd/MeanMachinesSega43UK.pdf|magazine=Mean Machines (UK) |publisher=EMAP |issue=43 |page=8}} Shortly after the PC release, Acclaim Entertainment announced they would publish a port of the game for the Saturn.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Official_Sega_Saturn_Magazine_007/page/n11 |title=Bad Mojo in Development |magazine=Sega Saturn Magazine |issue=7 |publisher=EMAP |date=May 1996 |page=12}} However, it went unreleased, and has not been confirmed that development ever began.

Got Game Entertainment re-released the game in December 2004 as Bad Mojo Redux. All in-game videos were remastered from original footage. Redux runs in truecolor only, opposed to the 1996 release which required only 256-color mode. This change makes the videos clearer and more colorful. The re-release also came with a bonus DVD, which contained a making-of, art galleries and other bonuses.{{cite web|url=http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/BadMojoRedux/BadMojoRedux.shtm |title=Just Adventure review |accessdate=2007-07-20 |author=Necasek, Michal |date=2004-12-10 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915162928/http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/BadMojoRedux/BadMojoRedux.shtm |archivedate=2007-09-15 }} This DVD was omitted from the UK release.

The game was distributed by Nightdive Studios, who released the game in the digital storefront Steam on July 3, 2014,{{cite web|url=http://store.steampowered.com/news/13782/ |title=Now Available on Steam - Bad Mojo: Redux |accessdate=2014-07-04 |date=2014-07-03 |work=Valve |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707083652/http://store.steampowered.com/news/13782 |archivedate=2014-07-07 }} while GOG.com added it to their store on May 22, 2014.{{cite web|url=https://www.gog.com/news/release_bad_mojo_redux |title=Release: Bad Mojo Redux |work=GOG.com |date=May 22, 2014}}

On 2019, Xorcist released a vinyl soundtrack of the game's score.

{{Video game reviews

| CGW = {{Rating|4|5}}

| NGen = {{Rating|3|5}}

| PCGUS = 84%{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20000226175712/http://www.pcgamer.com/reviews/1302.html |url=http://www.pcgamer.com/reviews/1302.html |title=Bad Mojo |date=February 1996 |author=Wolf, Scott |archivedate=February 26, 2000 |work=PC Gamer US |url-status=dead}}

| PCZone = 70%{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/PCZONE038/page/n107/mode/2up |title=Pick N' Mix |date=May 1996 |magazine=PC Zone |issue=38 |page=90}}

| rev1 = MacHome Journal

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20011129175321/http://www.machome.com/reviews/Action.Lasso?-Database=reviewsDB&-layout=search&-response=display.lasso&-RecordID=33243&-search |url=http://www.machome.com:80/reviews/Action.Lasso?-Database=reviewsDB&-layout=search&-response=display.lasso&-RecordID=33243&-search |title=Bad Mojo |date=August 1996 |author=Worthington, Paul |work=MacHome Journal |archivedate=November 29, 2001 |url-status=dead |access-date=August 8, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}

| rev2 = PC Magazine

| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|4}}{{cite journal |author=Delaney, John |journal=PC Magazine |date=July 1996 |title=Deep-Thinking Puzzlers for the Adventurous Gamer; Bad Mojo |number=15 |volume=13 |page=458}}

| rev3 = MacUser

| rev3Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20001120023200/http://macuser.zdnet.com/mu_1196/personal/gameroom.html | url=http://macuser.zdnet.com:80/mu_1196/personal/gameroom.html | title=The Game Room | author=Loyola, Roman | date=November 1996 | archivedate=November 20, 2000 | work=MacUser | url-status=dead | access-date=May 28, 2018 | df=mdy-all }}

| rev4 = PC Entertainment

| rev4Score = A−{{cite magazine |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19961018113933/http://www.pcgamesmag.com/games/Jan96/mojo196.html |url=http://www.pcgamesmag.com:80/games/Jan96/mojo196.html |title=Bad Mojo |magazine=PC Entertainment |author=Klett, Steve |date=January 1996 |archivedate=October 18, 1996 |url-status=dead |access-date=May 28, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}

| rev5 = Macworld

| rev5Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19970206145521/http://www.macworld.com/pages/september.96/Reviews.2628.html |url=http://www.macworld.com:80/pages/september.96/Reviews.2628.html |title=Bad Mojo |date=September 1996 |author=Crotty, Cameron |archivedate=February 6, 1997 |work=Macworld |url-status=dead |access-date=July 6, 2018 |df=mdy-all }}

| rev6 = Maximum

| rev6Score = {{rating|3|5}}

| rev7 = Computer Game Review

| rev7Score = 84/100{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19961221183644/http://www.nuke.com/cgr/reviews/9605/badmojo/badmojo.htm | url=http://www.nuke.com/cgr/reviews/9605/badmojo/badmojo.htm | title=Bad Mojo | author=Snyder, Frank | date=May 1996 | work=Computer Game Review | archivedate=December 21, 1996 | url-status=dead }}

| award1Pub = PC/Computing

| award1 = MVP Award Winner

| award2Pub = Macworld

| award2 = Game Hall of Fame

}}

According to co-producer Alex Louie, the original 1996 release of Bad Mojo was commercially successful. Following the game's launch, Macworld reported that it was "selling steadily."{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20000928222603/http://macworld.zdnet.com/gameline/features/mojostory.html |url=http://macworld.zdnet.com:80/gameline/features/mojostory.html |title=Behind the Minds of Bad Mojo |archivedate=September 28, 2000 |author=Staff |work=Macworld |url-status=dead |access-date=July 6, 2018 |df=mdy-all }} By February 1997, roughly 12 months after its release, its sales had reached 175,000 units.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89623575/the-san-francisco-examiner/|title=The beat goes on|newspaper=San Francisco Examiner|page=27|date=February 16, 1997|accessdate=November 27, 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} Louie said in 2004 that he was "pretty sure we sold over 200,000 units" by the end of Bad Mojo{{'}}s shelf life.{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502093053/https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17754 |url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17754 |title=Alex Louie Interview |date=October 13, 2004 |author=MacDonald, Laura |archivedate=May 2, 2015 |work=Adventure Gamers |url-status=live }} It also received accolades from critics. Inside Mac Games nominated Bad Mojo as its pick for 1996's best adventure game, but ultimately presented the award to Titanic: Adventure Out of Time.{{cite journal |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19980218053537/http://www.imgmagazine.com/issues/vol5_issue2/p5.html |url=http://www.imgmagazine.com:80/issues/vol5_issue2/p5.html |title=1996 Games of the Year |author=IMG Staff |date=1997 |volume=5 |issue=2 |archivedate=February 18, 1998 |journal=Inside Mac Games |url-status=dead |access-date=April 17, 2018 |df=mdy-all }} Conversely, the editors of Macworld gave Bad Mojo their 1996 "Best Role-Playing Game" award. Steven Levy of the magazine called it "an amazing experience".{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030108183053/http://www.macworld.com/1997/01/features/3158.html |url=http://www.macworld.com:80/1997/01/features/3158.html |title=1997 Macintosh Game Hall of Fame |author=Levy, Steven |author-link=Steven Levy |work=Macworld |date=January 1997 |archivedate=January 8, 2003 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all |access-date=July 3, 2017 }} In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Bad Mojo the 30th-best adventure game ever released.{{cite web |author=AG Staff |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604021011/http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18643 |url=http://www.adventuregamers.com:80/articles/view/18643 |title=Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games |date=December 30, 2011 |archivedate=June 4, 2012 |work=Adventure Gamers |url-status=live |access-date=June 9, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}

Arinn Dembo, writing for Computer Gaming World, gave the game 4 stars.Dembo, Arinn; Twilight of the Cockroaches: Bad Mojo Evokes Kafka So Well It'll Turn Your Stomach, p. 106. Computer Gaming World, Issue 143, June 1996 MacAddict magazine gave the game its highest rating of "Freakin' Awesome", with reviewer Kathy Tafel praising the game's world as "rich" and saying that it was "both amusing and disgusting."{{cite journal|last=Tafel|first=Kathy|date=September 1996 |title=Reviews: Bad Mojo|journal=MacAddict|volume=1|issue=1|page=55|issn=1088-548X}} A reviewer for Maximum opined that the game's unique and eerie story and presentation make it a compelling experience in spite of the limited gameplay. However, he felt that the lack of longevity was a major downside.{{cite magazine |title=Maximum Reviews: Bad Mojo|magazine=Maximum: The Video Game Magazine|issue=5 |publisher=Emap International Limited|date=April 1996|page=161}} A reviewer for Next Generation commented that "Bad Mojo isn't the best graphic adventure, but it's got something that counts a long ways - peculiarity. ... no other adventure has been as willing to show the savage gruesomeness of mankind's sloth."{{cite magazine |title=Cocky |magazine=Next Generation|issue=17|publisher=Imagine Media|date=May 1996|page=94}}

The editors of PC Gamer US presented Bad Mojo Redux with their "Best Adventure Game 2004" award. Chuck Osborn of the magazine wrote that it "remains as inventive and resourceful as ever — and [is] ultimately better than any other adventure released this year."{{cite journal |date=March 2005 |title=The Eleventh Annual PC Gamer Awards |volume=12 |number=3 |pages=33–36, 38, 40, 42, 44 |journal=PC Gamer US |author=Osborn, Chuck}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/19961230202037/http://www.badmojo.com/bmintro1.html Official site] (archived)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041015012554/http://www.gotgameentertainment.com/badmojo/ Got Game Entertainment entry on Bad Mojo]
• {{MobyGames|id=/bad-mojo}}

{{Cockroach}}

{{The Metamorphosis}}

Category:1996 video games

Category:Acclaim Entertainment games

Category:Adaptations of works by Franz Kafka

Category:Adventure games

Category:Cancelled Sega Saturn games

Category:Classic Mac OS games

Category:Full motion video based games

Category:Got Game Entertainment games

Category:Single-player video games

Category:Video games about insects

Category:Video games about shapeshifting

Category:Video games based on literature

Category:Video games developed in the United States

Category:Video games set in 1958

Category:Windows games

Category:Works about cockroaches

Category:Video games with pre-rendered 3D graphics